Pages

Friday, April 1, 2011

What happens when you don't take your time with sourdough

It's my student teacher's last week of full-time teaching, and I thought I'd use this non-stressful time to get a little ahead with my April Mellow Bakers breads. For my first one, I picked the pain au levain: a nice, simple sourdough loaf. Our fearless leader Paul suggested making all three variations (pain au levain, pain au levain with whole wheat, and pain au levain with two different pre-ferments). I fully intended to just pick one, knowing that this time of the year is not conducive to comparison posts for me...have to save that for the summer when school's out.

But when I looked at the pain au levain and the one with whole wheat, they were so similar, I figured it would be easy enough to make them side by side. I decided to make a whole batch of the starter (which was exactly the same for both versions) and then half batches of the rest of the recipe so I'd get one loaf of each. Easy!

I mixed up the various flours and the water in two different bowls and then let them sit for their autolyse. And when I went to add the starter to the first bowl (the basic pain au levain), I realized that I'd somehow only made a half-batch of stiff starter. Argh! So I decided to go back to my initial plan and just make one loaf.

Now, I could end the post there with the nice picture above of my perfect little boule..........but April Fools! That wouldn't be nearly as honest or as funny, and you wouldn't learn nearly as much from my mistakes. So instead, I present you with the truth: this is what happens when you don't take your time with sourdough:

Where did it all go wrong? Let me count the ways. First of all, I didn't let Austin (my starter) get bubbly enough before I mixed it into the stiff starter. But I think that ended up being okay, because I just let the stiff starter sit out for a few extra hours.

But those extra hours threw the rest of my bread-baking plans off. I ended up having to mix up the dough while making dinner. And then the two strech-and-folds were off a little due to bath and bedtime. And by the time I finally shaped the bread and but it into the banneton, it was getting late. So I didn't spend time preshaping and shaping. I just formed a rough boule and dumped it into the banneton. The book said to let it do its final rise for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, and I knew it would probably need even more time than that in my cool house. But I was soooo tired and it was late and I needed to wake up early for work. So after a measley 1 1/2 hours, when clearly it wasn't even close to ready yet, I threw the bread into the oven.

So, no surprise, but lesson learned and reaffirmed: see above for what happens when you don't give a sourdough the time it wants and needs. (Happily, it did still taste yummy...soft crumb and delicate sour flavor. Worked beautifully as a vehicle, albeit a holey one, for my lunch sandwich today.)

13 comments:

You are so right, that is a truly educational post, bravo for posting it! I have done very similar things, the worst one was when the loaf looked ok but was inedibly sour as I had used some very old sour starte. Hope your weekend is full of fun!

I guess it's all about learning what rules you can break and what you can't. Yours looks OK from the top but looks like a mushroom on the side. I'm surprised it looks like that--I would have thought that if you didn't let it proof long enough it would just be flat--yours looks like it got a lot of rise but only in one or two spots! At least it was still good to eat!

I couldn't help but laugh! Mostly because I have had my fair share of bricks, blowouts, and inedible breads. Usually it's my impatience or a decision to go suddenly in a different direction from what I know works. I made English Muffins with my sourdough the other day, and it was like a train wreck from the start. The dog seemed to enjoy them though!

Bravo on the great post. Not only is it a learning opportunity for you and other bakers, but it shows that yes, things can and do go wrong and THAT'S OK!! It can get rather intimidating to see nothing but successful bakes or whatever on the endless cooking shows where everything turns out perfect every time (thanks in large part to the production team and editing). Life isn't really like that.

And if it's still edible, then it's not a fail at all. It may not be gallery perfect but it's still a delicious lesson.

Which I'll keep in mind as PJ gets built up on the counter as I type...

Enjoyed reading this post. Yes, the first thing my husband and I thought of was a "mouse cathedral" we had seen someone else make:) My bread did something similar on the bottom last week, but I was not brave enough to take a picture of it. Will definitely remember the lesson. Thank you so much for posting!! I'm glad it still made a wonderful sandwich.

Okay, I learned a lot here...thanks for the research. You know, Nancy is always looking for a way to get bigger holes in her bread...she should see yours! lol! Okay, not funny, but I couldn't resist. I am having my own issues with that sourdough starter. Slo Mo and I have had quite a few talks.